1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a new system for collecting the radiant energy of sunlight.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Heretofore, several systems for collecting the radiant energy of sunlight have been proposed. As an example seen in a solar-electric power plant or a solar furnace, sunlight is concentrated, to yield a high temperature, on a receiver by a large number of mirrors designed to follow the sun, or so-called heliostats, wherein each mirror must be individually moved by clockwork for strictly reflecting the solar rays into a fixed direction to the receiver, so that it is inevitable for the system to become very complicated in a large scale. A unit collector such as giant parabolic mirror or Fresnel lens as another example must be also designed to strictly follow the sun, otherwise the incident solar rays can not focus on one point, so that the efficiency for collecting solar energy lowers markedly. Many attempts for improving the follow-means have been made, but any of those is still complicated and expensive. We have now found that collecting the radiant energy of sunlight with a considerable high efficiency can be accomplished with no special follow-means.